Federal Way Climber Dies In Himalayan

A Seattle-area mountain climber was one of three people killed by an avalanche high in the Himalayas, an expedition spokesman said today.

Nancy Jackson, 34, of Federal Way, died in the slide along with Charles Schertz, 35, of Pittsburgh and a sherpa guide, Nima Wangchuk. They were found buried in the snow March 27 by other team members of the American Manaslu Expedition, said spokesman Dan McConnell in Seattle.

The accident occurred at the 15,510-foot level of 26,760-foot-high Mount Manaslu on the Nepal-Tibet border. Manaslu is the eighth-highest peak in the world.

Schertz, a physician, was one of two climbing doctors on the expedition. He was a member of the 1988 Northwest American Everest Expedition and was part of the first American ascent of Cho Oyu in the Himalayas in 1986.

Jackson, who grew up in Moscow, Idaho, had a master's degree in engineering. After a few years of research at Weyerhaeuser, however, she quit to pursue climbing and became a guide at Mount Rainier.

She climbed Rainier more than 50 times during the 1980s and reached the summits of Mount McKinley in Alaska, highest peak in North America, and Aconcagua in Argentina, highest peak in South America.